My 1973 TVR 2500M : Renew and Restomod

TVR Scott said:

In reply to Stampie :

I do have to feed her and buy her shoes, so was it really the low quote?

Feed yes but your fault for teaching her about shoes.

In reply to Stampie :

You got a real lol out of me there!

I've done a few more things the last few days.  I sandblasted the rear uprights and then folowed up with a SS wire brush.

I'm debating sanding down the rough casting marks and smoothing out sharp corners.  In theory it might make lower surface stresses, in reality?

Still need to drill out the broken bolts were the parking brake mounts go.

Got the new oil filter adaptor mounted.  A little hard to see there on the right:

I'm hoping the fittings clear the frame ok.  I think they'll be fine.  I'd like a version that would directly mount to the block, but haven't found one yet.

I promised a pic of the old sway bar mount:

Clearly there's been a good bit of contact here.

Got the frame back from the sand-blasting guy yesterday.  Sooooo uniformly matte colored:

The job was supposed to be about $700 plus $60 delivery.  When he delivered the frame, the proprietor Sean was really unhappy with the job his brother had done on it.  By my eye it was pretty minor missed spots, but he didn't like the job that was done.  He talked himself down again and again, as I tried to tell him it looked fine.  I ended up paying him $250 total.

So he gets all the karma-points.  So happy to work with an honest guy, as opposed to the gas-tank clean-out guys who left the inside really dirty and put a big dent in the outside.  Big thumbs up to Sean at Blast Off LLC!

Last night I got a start on trimming out a couple rusted tubes.  The first in several.  I also saw that the gussets the PO added are not welded in nicely at all.  I'll be removing them and adding my own.

Sandblasted frames or bodywork are so nice when they come back. Easy to see what needs to be repaired, welding is easy on all that clean metal. Glad you found an honest guy who was not happy with the work. Looks good in the pictures! So much easier to see what you need to fix when 40+ years of crud are gone. TVR's have quite a complex framework.

In reply to dherr :

For sure, the details stand out so much better now.  Before it was all grime and old paint and rust. 

When I welded in the motor mounts, I tried to tig them and the metal basically exploded at me.  I assume it was just surface contamination I couldn't get out.  Flux-core worked fine.  Will be nice having it all cleaned up.

Tube cancer removal.

More tube trimming over the weekend.  Almost got this round one ground out:

Lots of quality time with a die grinder and sanding drum.

Also, my daughter made this for me for my birthday!

The Lego dude is hilarious!

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

She's a wizard with modeling clay.  Though evidently the wire-forming just about drove her crazy.  She's a bit of a perfectionist and will readily ruin all her own fun worrying that it could be better.

PS, the visor goes up and down...

First replacement fits up nicely.

More pics, since I'm sitting at my desk now instead of the couch.

Close-up of the trimmed area.  Interesting to see the insides of the plates and tubes have a little bit of surface rust.  That water got everywhere!

Another view of the tube test-fit:

Gaps are nice and tight.  I'll need some gusset plates in a few spots.  The top edge of that square tube is really thin.  And the shock mounts are going to get doublers on both sides.

And I got started on the PS:

Grind, grind, noise, noise, sparks, sparks.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Time to go put on my trash clothes for the morning!

Passenger's side tube is done too:

I'm staring down an epic game of Garage-Tetris.  I need to get the shop computer rolled over to the plasma cutter, so that I can cut some brackets.  Maybe I'll  see if the cords can stretch over the frame first...

Time for "TVR Project: Retail-Therapy Edition"

Everyone together now: ooooooooooh....

I sold my flaky old bandsaw, so here's my replacement for cutting steel tubing and plate.

Very first cut out of the box - 1-1/2" CRS round stock.  I didn't push it at all, and the cut took 30 sec max.

Then I proceeded to spend the next three hours fighting my lathe, ruining drill bits, and basically ruining my own afternoon.  But at least I made the bushing wrong.  ARGH!

Tomorrow is another day.

In other news, I 3d-printed this saw guide for trimming the old tube frames:

I'll take a hack saw to that tomorrow, because today it appears that everything I touch turns to E36 M3.

(deep breath in, deep breath out...)

I hate days like that. There are times when you know 30 minutes in that you should probably just turn off the lights and go back into the house. The good thing is that most times when I create more problems than I fix, the next day with a clear head, those problems get resolved.  

Tomorrow will be a better day! 

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks.

I also just found online some 1-3/8 OD x 7/8 ID DOM tubing.  Exactly what I need.  Unclear where this precious stuff was a few weeks ago when I went to buy stock.  Oh well.  It's only money.  1 ft ordered.

Forward.

Glad to see you making stuff. Just think: it could be worse. It could have ants.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Glad to see you making stuff. Just think: it could be worse. It could have ants.

True words. 

Or worse: mice.  I'd have sent my dog in to do the eviction on that one.  He loves mice - so tasty and crunchy and squeaky.

Is that an Evolution Saw? I bought a Rage 2 a few years back. I use it all of the time. I've cut up to 4" round aluminum with it using the aluminum specific blade they sell. I added a fence extension to mine so that I could add a stop block and cut stock to length. It really reduces the amount of time it takes to cut material into bite sized pieces for my little CNC converted bench top mill. 

This is before I was finished. I added a 4" x 1/8" plate to the bottom of the fence to support the cut offs.

In reply to CAinCA :

It is indeed an Evo.  The new S380.

I like that fence a lot.  I'll have to think about doing something like that too.

Ok, more frame grinding, more retail therapy.

It would seem the suspension mounts on these M's just aren't really up to the task.  I've read in several places of people beefing them up, and the PO of this car had added some little gussets.  I knew they weren't great, but didn't know the extent of it until I got the frame back from blasting.

Um, yuck.

And more yuck:

This one was extra yucky.  It had actually already broken on the tab side, and I snapped off the rest with pliers.  You can even see rust on the inside of the "weld bead".

Enter retail-therapy:

Never had anything from WEN before, but it was cheap and had good reviews on the HD site.  I associate them with big stationary woodworking machines.  With about 5 min of experience, I can say the design seems well though out, it's pretty powerful, and it's not too noisy.

Tab removal - mostly done with dremel tool and cut-off wheel:

More:

And this one got some smoothing with the new sander.  Coming along.

Yes, that is some ugly welding, and "washer" repairs.  I am sure it feels good to make it right again. You will have a great chassis when this is done, which you will need, given the Ecoboost engine going in this TVR. Keep plugging away!

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

My goal is to have it good and bullet-proof by the time I'm done.

Worked on the 3D model of the frame some more today:

It's been a long time since I've added to it, and I went back and double checked all my dimensions.  I actually found a couple that were off, which is probably why I had all kinds of frustration last fall when I was working on intercooler placement.  Will have to go back and look at all that again.

More immediately I'm trying to get the suspension mounts measured and in the model so that I can cut repair parts.

For tonight's update I offer a collection of relatively crappy photos.  Looks like I licked my phone camera or something...

Fitting of new tubes to the back end is coming along.  Here's the saw guide in action:

Actually totally a staged photo - I'm left-handed.

Here's the driver's side after being cut down.  Cleaned it up a little with the new mini belt-sander, and the fit is pretty nice.

Here's a quick mock up of the new tubes.  Looking decent with a little bit of gap for welding.

And a close-up on the passenger's side:

At this point I'm planning to TIG it where I can  and wire-feed where I have to.  I need to get the welder un-buried and do some test pieces.  See if the old frame likes TIG after being sand-blasted.

I also got the splatter-crap weld beads removed from the lower suspension mounts.  The new belt-sander is pretty awesome.

That's it for now!

Nice work, so is there a spot where water enters the frame on the TVR chassis? Your 3rd picture shows where the top of the frame on both sides was rusted out in the back mounts the suspension, like water got in the frame and migrated to these two spots? Might not be bad idea to find the holes or fill the frame with foam or something to prevent water and rust? The Brits used to sell Waxoil to pour into the frames to keep out moisture and  rust.